I loved Alone--it was a beautiful story reminscent of Island of the Blue Dolphins, one of my childhood favorites.

But my biggest complaint was...WHY WAS EVERYONE EVACUATED???

Away answers that question for us as we see the evacuation unfold through the eyes of four children who end up in the same evacuation center. They end up discovering some dark secrets behind the evacuation and must find a way to share their findings...or lose their homes forever.

This one didn't have quite the same ebb and flow as Alone due to the fact that each child told their story in their own format (verse for two, letters and news articles for one, and play/screenplay for the last). It made the story feel a little disjointed...but the more I read, the more invested I became. I know that my student readers who were left wondering about the evacuation like I was will appreciate this follow-up.

I think my students are going to love this just as much as they loved its predecessor “Alone”, I know that I did.

In this sequel, we find out what happened to Maddie’s friends and what happened in the evacuation centers. There are a lot of interesting ties to the first book.

I was really bowled over by the new plot in this book though. The new kids in this book are documentarians and journalists who are trying to figure out why they’re in the evacuation camps and why they’re there. They’re all really great. I especially liked the kid who’s got the encyclopedic knowledge of movies, a real kid after my own heart.

I am really excited to get this in the hands of as many students as I can!

In the companion book to Alone, Freeman brings us to one of the evacuation camps many Coloradan families were forced to relocate to after a mysterious, unnamed imminent danger is announced. Four middle graders come together, each with a different background and different lens, to investigate what is happening outside of the camp and to collaborate on how they can get the word to the families within it. Each child's point of view is written in a different type of verse - a major highlight of the book that will keep all types of readers on their toes and engaged! Lovers of Alone will definitely want to read Away, which can easily be read before Away - read them both, but in any order!

Wonderfully written story that seems like it could truly happen in the times we are living in. Makes you really think as the story unfolds.

This book is a companion to Alone. I will say I enjoyed Alone more but this book was also pretty good. I think I hoped there would be more of an explanation in this book than the author gave in Alone. Maybe there will be a sequel to both. Outside of that issue, the book was well written and the descriptions of what the characters were dealing with were good. I felt there were too many characters that were the main focus of this book. Their stories couldn’t be well developed in the amount of pages the book contained. I wouldn’t recommend reading the book first but if you enjoyed Alone, I would suggest reading it just to find out a little more about the characters. Since it is a novel in verse, it is a quick read.

I just finished Away by Megan E Freeman. It's a companion book for her other novel in verse, Alone. Where Alone followed a girl who was the only person left behind in her town, Away follows the people who evacuated the town. Like Alone, this novel is also told in verse. However, instead of one protagonist, it follows a group of kids who end up being friends in their evacuation camp. While they are waiting to return to their homes, the kids discover things might not be what they seem, and they make it their mission to uncover the truth.

I loved loved Alone when I read it, so I was really excited for this novel. While I think it's a good companion novel, I didn't feel as connected with these characters as I did in the other. I'm not sure if it was the switching perspectives or what. However, the kids' friendship was really sweet, and it was great to see their hopefulness during a time when most people would give up. It also touches on pretty relevant government and climate control issues we find ourselves in today. That was a nice bonus to the book!

Told in multiple POVS with a mixture of novel in verse, movie script, production diary, letters, and newspaper articles, this companion novel to Alone, Away follows a group of kids who were placed in the same evacuation camp after the imminent yet unnamed danger that forced them out of their home. When the group of kids has an aspiring filmmaker and a budding journalist, they begin to dig into the reasoning as to why their world was turned upside down.

As they begin to investigate, they start to discover there’s more of a cover-up operation going on than there is an actual immediate threat. Can the group get to the root of the conspiracy and tell the adults in a way they’ll be believed before it’s too late?

I absolutely adored Alone when I read it back in 2023, so I immediately tried to get my hands on Away as soon as I could. This novel is not a full novel in verse but jumps around between different styles depending on which character it’s focusing on at the moment - though Grandin and Ashantae’s are in verse, Teddy’s is written in movie script or production diary, and Harmony writes letters to her Aunt and essays in new reports.

I think this fast paced story would be fun for middle school readers, especially those who like to prove kids can be just as absorbent, if not more, than adults. The charge to question what is really going on begins with the kids and they’re the ones who shine the light on it in order for the adults to finally see what’s happening.

Are some of the scenarios in this unrealistic? Yes, but it didn’t stop me from thoroughly enjoying it as I’m sure many others will.

You don’t have to have read Alone in order to understand what is happening in this novel as it is a companion novel and not a sequel.

*Thank you Aladdin and NetGalley for a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

I enjoyed this book. It answered many of the questions that I had while reading Alone. The story is told from various perspectives and each one was written in a different way (verse, script, letter form, etc.) This was a creative way to help us learn more about each of the characters. Overall, the plot was well thought out, but I thought the ending was a little abrupt. I would still recommend it for libraries where Alone is popular.

Alone has been one of my most frequently recommended to students and teachers over the years since it published. I love it!
Consequently, Away has been highly anticipated for me since I first heard of its existence. With that kind of hype for it, there's a chance for disappointment. However, there is absolutely no disappointment here. Away was a fantastic follow up/companion to provide readers with more to the story! I enjoyed the characters (both human ones and Popcorn!) I loved that one kid was an aspiring documentarian and another was focused on journalism. The highlighted the importance of facts, evidence, and storytelling, as well as hunting for the truth when it isn't forthcoming. Most middle grade books reinforce the idea that kids can accomplish things, can stand up for others and themselves, can "save the world", but this one does it tremendously! Suspenseful, mysterious, thought-provoking and elicits genuine worry and concern for the characters to keep you flipping the pages. Several times I told myself: "I'm just gonna read until the end of this section", but I kept reading and reading and reading instead.

Even though this book, Away, is meant to be a companion to Megan E. Freeman's book, Alone, it can be enjoyed as a stand-alone. This would be a great book for middle-school readers. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with the ARC ebook I read and reviewed. All opinions are my own.

I enjoyed this companion to the author’s book Alone. It gave more context to the first book, but could be read on its own as well. I liked the multiple points of view and that much of the story was in verse, but I didn’t enjoy the parts that were told like a movie script. My middle school students enjoy books that have characters their age, especially when they are the heroes! I recommend Alone often and will suggest kids continue the story with this book. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this advanced reader's copy.

I really liked this companion to Alone by the same author. The lingering question from Alone was always why did everyone have to inexplicably have to suddenly evacuate. This book tells that story. Kids meet up at one of the shelter camps and while becoming friends, also begin to question their situation. They do some great detective work and we finally have our answer! Thank you to Net Galley for allowing me to read this ARC!

My students loved Alone and I know for a fact they will be anxiously awaiting to get to read Away.
Being told in multiple POVS really elevates the storyline-- each voice having a different style and purpose!
I think students who are now in high school will still come back to read Away because they will want to know what happened!
I also love the mixed media that the story is told in--it has a sort of investigative feel!

Away successfully provides the other side to the story of Alone. The perseverance of the kids gave hope that all would be righted in the end. Each characters perspective was given in a different format that fit their personality. Definitely recommend ad a companion to Alone.

Freeman opens the book with "for the readers who kept insisting there was more to the story..." Well, geez, Freeman, I didn't know that I needed this story because I loved Alone and am usually satisfied enough whether an author continues with a story or not. But now I know I needed it.

What a creative approach with the multiple characters and multimedia. Four kids: Ashanti, the daughter of a doctor, Grandin a kid growing up on a ranch, Harmony, an up-and-coming investigative journalist who has an aunt who works as a reporter as well, and Teddy, a budding documentarian/director who loves his Grandma.

This companion explains the launch of the deportation of a large swath of Colorado's inhabitants without much explanation. The kids who have been moved and living in another location set up by the government to help are suspicious as details unfold (or rather that there were so few details that the kids tried to find out what was actually happening). The dystopian feel creates a creepy atmosphere that hangs over the story and swiftly moves the story forward because readers want to know what is happening. Excellently paced with real environmental conversations creep into the book that would raise questions for anyone about whether this could happen similar to stories like Ahmed's [book:Internment|38167114].

This is an amazing follow up to Alone; I dare say that I like it better than the original. Told following the same timeline as Maddie, left alone in her Colorado town for 2 years after an imminent threat causes mass evacuations. Away answers the question we were left with, what was the threat?

I found this book to be exciting and a fast-paced read. Told from 4 different POVs and in different writing styles. Ashanti stays in sync with her BFF Maddie and is written in verse. Teddy, Gradin and Harmony use NIV, movie script, production journaling, new articles, and letters to tell their stories. It's very easy to follow each character.

I will recommend to my middle school students and feel this book can be a read-alone.

As a middle school librarian, I will be recommending this book to my students. I have had several students read Alone this year, and I know they will enjoy reading this companion novel. I enjoyed reading the other side of the story and knowing what was happening in the evacuation camps while Maddie was still living in the “contamination zone.” It had been a little bit of time since I finished reading Alone, so after I finished Away, I went back and re-read the end of the first book because I couldn’t remember exactly how Maddie was reunited with her family. I loved reading the backstory of the characters and then seeing how they worked together to solve a huge problem. They demonstrated how persistence, dedication, teamwork, and determination are great attributes to have.
A few drawbacks of the book (at least for me) are the switching back and forth between narrative styles, especially to Teddy’s screenplay sections and the parts of the book that seemed unrealistic. I appreciate how Teddy’s sections were setting the scene to give readers a glimpse into their environment, but I found myself skimming those details the farther I got into the book. I also had to suspend belief in some parts, but this could be the difference between my adult brain processing the situation and how I would have reacted versus how a middle school student might see it since they have less life experience.
Overall, I enjoyed the book and the characters and can’t wait for my middle school students to have the chance to read it!

As a middle school teacher with students who LOVE the book Alone, I was very excited to receive this ARC. We have several copies of Alone, and they are rarely on the shelves as they are almost always in the hands of students. Away does not disappoint! Students will love reading this story from different perspectives, and I know they will be drawn to the different formats throughout the book. Readers will be intrigued as the characters try to uncover the truth about the evacuations. This one is going to be a hit with middle grade readers!
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the e-galley!

At the end of Alone, while the story wraps up nicely, we are left without knowing what really happened to the world Maddie lives in. Freeman could have left us with that, and it would have been fine, but when I saw that there was a follow up, I had to have it. (Thanks NetGalley and Edelweiss--you both came through for me!!)

The story starts the same place Alone starts, but from the perspective of the people who made it onto the transport vans, including Ashanti, Maddie's sleepover buddy. We also meet Grandin, a country boy whose dad refused to get on the transport, Harmony, an aspiring journalist, and Teddy, who loves movies and film. These four are thrown together when the transports arrive at the "camps." As life settles down and time passes, and the people are still not told what existential threat the outside world is facing, these kids aim to get to the bottom of the mystery. When all was revealed, I found the answer to be completely plausible.

I did find it to be a little less compulsively readable than Alone, simply due to all the jumping around in formatting. Ashanti writes in verse, Harmony writes via letters to her aunt, and Teddy's sections read like a screenplay. A neat idea, but it made it a little harder to follow for me.

All in all, a very worthy follow-up to Alone with a satisfying and believable ending!

I really enjoyed this follow-up book to Alone. At first, I wondered if the different points of view would be confusing to students, but I don't believe that it will. I liked the format of the verse and liked how each character had a unique voice/format. I also liked knowing more background for why everyone evacuated, and loved that the KIDS were the one to solve the mystery. A quick read that I thoroughly enjoyed!